Don’t quit, don’t die

The story, which I’m lazily not going to look up, goes something like this: An elderly couple celebrates their long-time anniversary. Let’s say 50th. When asked by a well-wisher, “What’s the secret to staying married for so long?”, the man replies, “Don’t quit, don’t die.”

We see this all the time at our Aikido dojo. Someone will start training with us, and after a remarkably brief period of time—a couple of months, or weeks—they’ve stopped coming. “Work has really gotten busy,” they’ll say, or in one memorable instance, “I’m just not getting better.”

The funny thing about mastery: everyone who keeps practicing gets better. Everyone. Some people may get better faster than others, but everyone increases their level of competence up to the level of their practice.